Apparatus for feeding a continuous untwisted multifilament strand



June 30, 1964 R. e. RUSSELL 3,139,226

APPARATUS FOR FEEDING A CONTINUOUS UNTWISTED MULTIFILAMENT STRAND Original Filed 001;. 25, 1958 INVENTOR.

( FIE; 7 ROBERT 6 RUSSELL wall A TTOR/VEVS United States Patent 3,139,226 APPARATUS FOR FEEDING A CONTINUOUS UNTWISTED MULTIFILAMENT STRAND Robert G. Russell, Granville, Ohio, assignor to Owens- Corning Fiherglas Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Original application Get. 23, 1958, Ser. No. 769,138, now Patent No. 3,029,993, dated Apr. 17, 1962. Divided and this application Dec. 15, 1961, Ser. No. 159,606

4 Claims. (Cl. 226-190) This application is a division of my copending application Serial No. 769,138, now Patent No. 3,029,993, filed October 23, 1958.

This invention relates to rotary means for feeding a continuous multifilament strand and, more particularly, to rotary means consisting of a single high speed wheel so designed that only portions of its peripheral surface are contacted by the continuous multifilament strand being fed.

Although pulling wheels embodying the invention may be utilized for feeding many different types of continuous strands they are particularly useful for feeding continuous multifilament glass fiber strands and will be shown for such use. Such a strand is formed by simultaneously attenuating some 200 to 400 individual fine glass fibers, laterally compacting the group of fibers together in substantially parallel, untwisted relationship and then handling the strand thus associated as a unit.

Some success has been achieved in feeding strands of this type at high lineal speeds by feeding them between the peripheries of co-acting rotary pulling wheels'mounted upon parallel axes so spaced that the strands are tightly gripped between the bites of the pulling wheels, the peripheries of the pulling wheels being fabricated from deformable material. The use of co-acting rotary pulling wheels of this type includes a serious problem in that V such a strand of a multiplicity of parallel fibers tends to split and to lick, i.e., to wrap around, one or both of the pulling wheels.

Another difliculty with co-acting pairs of pulling wheels is the necessity that their surfaces be deformable to an extent such that they will contact each other tightly around the strand being fed. When wheels having surfaces capable of thus contacting each other are rotated at sufiicient speeds so that the peripheral speeds reach the neighborhood of, say, 14,000 to 15,000 feet per minute, the centrifugal force created is so great that the deformable material soon passes its limitations and, as a result of the repeated, constant flexing in the bite between the wheels, bits and pieces of the material fly off the wheels.

It is the object of this; invention to provide a pulling wheel which maintains peripheral contact over only portions of its peripheral surface with a multifilament strand being fed but which is not subject to overwhelming destructive forces since it can be fabricated from material having great tensile strength.

Another object of this invention, therefore, is to provide a single pulling wheel around at least a portion of the periphery of which a strand being fed is led and which can be rotated to produce linear speeds of the strand greatly in excess of the speeds formerly limited by the lack of sufiicient tensile strength in resilient surfaced pulling wheels.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a single high speed rotary pulling wheel having a periphery so designed as to facilitate both the engagement and disengagement of the strand therefrom.

These objects and others will be better understood from the following description and from the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic view in front ele- 3,139,226 Patented June 30, 1964 vation of a strand feeding wheel constructed and operated according to the invention and showing its use for the feeding of a multifilament, untwisted strand comprising a large number of fibers.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view in side elevation of one modification of pulling wheel embodying the invention.

FIG. 3 is an end view of the pulling wheel shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary side view on an enlarged scale similar to FIG. 2, but showing another modification of pulling wheel embodying the invention.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view similar to FIG. 4, in part, and illustrating the pulling wheel shown in FIG. 4 at a slightly advanced position with respect to the position of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary view in elevation of the pulling wheel shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 and FIG. 7 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along the line 77 of FIG. 6.

As illustrative of one of the many uses for pulling wheels embodying the invention, in FIG. 1 a plurality of individual glass filaments 22 is shown as being grouped together in parallelism by a gathering shoe 23 to form a multifilament, untwisted continuous strand 24. The gathering shoe 23, as shown in FIG. 1, is simply a small trough lined with an absorbent material, for example,

felt, into which there is dripped a small quantity of a liquid that flows from a valve controlled pipe 25 connected to a supply tank 26.

The liquid employed may be denominated as a lubricant or coating and it serves the function of lubricating the individual filaments from each other as well as causing them to adhere together somewhat as a unitary strand and, as will be explained below, of cooperating according to the method of the invention with a pulling wheel designed according to the invention for successfully feeding the strand 24.

While direct application of a liquid to the filaments 22 is shown in FIG. 1, this figure is merely illustrative and so arranged to show the nature of the strand 24 as being made up of a plurality of separate fibers which are not twisted together as well as showing one way of applying liquid thereto. In other uses of pulling wheels according to the invention, the liquid may be applied directly on the strand 24 or may already be on the strand 24, as for example, when it has been coated at the time of initial formation and then is subsequently fed according to the invention. The force forfeeding the strand 24 is provided according to the invention by a high speed rotary pulling wheel 27 mounted for rotation upon a generally horizontal axle 28. A high speed rotary pulling wheel is one which is rotated at a sufiicient angular velocity that its peripheral speed exceeds 14,000 feet per minute.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 comprises the pulling wheel 27 which is illustrated as having a plurality of spaced peripheral notches 29. Each of the notches, as can best be seen in FIG. 3, extends from one edge of the rim of the pulling wheel 27 to its opposite edge. The pulling wheel 27 also has spaced, protruding, tooth-like portions 30 between the notches 29 which function as wettable and adhesive portions to provide traction for the feeding and attenuation of the continuous strand 24. The intervening notches 29 do not exert any tractive force on the strand 27 and thus do not contribute to its feeding. A slight wave formation is placed in the strand 24 by reason of its adherence to the wettable portions 30 and its non-adherence to the spaces provided by the notches 29.

In this embodiment of the invention the multi-filament strand 24 is illustrated as being guided onto the surface of the pulling wheel 27 by a laterally movable guide shoe 31, the guide shoe 31 being mounted upon a carriage 32.

The carriage 32 may be moved axially of the pulling wheel (see FIG. 3) by rotating a vernier knob 33 or similar mechanism, so that the line of engagement of the strand 24 with the surface of the pulling Wheel 27 may be varied as desired. l

The embodiment of the invention just described, as well as others, are capable of use for feeding multi-filament, untwisted glass fiber strands where no cohesive force exists between the parallel filaments without splitting the strand because the tendency of such strands to lick the surface can be controlled. Such wheels and such method are, therefore, useful in the initial formation of such strands by attenuating the filaments from individual hot streams of glass while feeding them.

The embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 7, as in the case of the earlier embodiment, consists of alternating tractive and non-tractive wheel portions, in this case provided by the use of alternating sections of material to which the strand does and does not adhere. In this embodiment of the invention a pulling wheel 35 is mounted for high speed rotation upon an axle 36 and utilized to feed a continuous multi-filament strand 37 of the type generally described above. The peripheral surface of the pulling wheel 35 consists of alternating areas which are fabricated from materials that are, for example, wettable and non-wettable by the liquid applied to the filaments or to the surface of the pulling wheel. These circumferentially spaced areas of the periphery exert tractive or feeding forces on the strand 37 and intervening areas do not.

In the pulling wheel 35 of FIGS. 4 to 7, the tractive or pulling areas are portions of the wheel itself and are indicated by the reference number 38. These areas are alternated with inserts formed from non-wettable material and which are, therefore, non-tractive, the inserts being indicated by the reference number 39. One manner of forming the areas 39 is shown most clearly in FIG. 7 where they are illustrated as consisting of arcuate dovetailed inserts made of a material different from that from which the pulling wheel 35 is constructed and having a surface which repels liquid applied to the strand too be fed and thus is not wetted.

As a result of the alternating wettable and non-wettable areas 38 and 39, the strand 37 tends to cling tightly to the wettable or adhesive areas 38 and to fall free immediately from the non-wettable or non-adhesive areas 39. The resulting action is shown diagrammatically in FIGS. 4 and 5. For purposes of comparison of these figures, an

index arrow is shown 'exteriorly of the pulling wheel 35 and an indicator arrow numbered 40 in FIGS. 4 and is shown on the side of thepulling wheel 35. It will be observed by comparing FIGURES 4 and 5 that the wheel 35 has rotated a distance suifieient to move the indicator 40 away from, the index a circumferential distance corresponding to one of the alternating areas 38 or 39. While the alternating areas 38 and 39 are illustrated as having the same extent circumferentially, it will be appreciated that by making the inserts 37 either smaller or larger than the areas 38 of the wheel itself, varying results in the amount of tractive force exerted and in the manner and position of strand delivery off of the wheel can be achieved.

In FIG. 4, the strand 37 is shown as clinging to an area 33 at the point indicated by the legend adhesion. In

next following one of the areas 39 as indicated by the legend non-adhesion. The strand 37 is thus alternatingly carried up slightly and then dropped by the wettable' and non-wettable areas 38 and 39 and the strand is delivered off the pulling wheel 35 with a generally sinusoidal configuration.

By controlling the factors involved, for example, the speed of rotation of the pulling wheel 35, the circumferential extent of the wettable and non-wettable areas 38 and 39, the quantity of liquid placed on the strand 37, ambient air temperature and currents, etc., the strand 37 may be fed by the pulling wheel 35 and delivered at a controllable portion otf the wheel 35 and in a controlled Wave form configuration. Delivery of the strand in a wave form configuration according to this embodiment of the invention reduces its net linear speed by the ratio between the actual length of the strand extending between two points along the strand and the distance between these two points along a straight line.

While the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG-S. 2 and 3 is designed to permit simple variation in the circumferential extent of the wettable surfaces 34 with which the strand is in contact, the wettable surfaces 38 of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 4 to 7 are pre-selected as a result. of experimentation to perform in a certain manner With respect to the feeding of a strand of certain size and weight, and under certain conditions.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, various modifications may be made to the disclosed structure without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim: 7

1. A carrying wheel for a fibrous glass strand having a generally cylindrical peripheral surface adapted to tangentially receive a moisture laden strand in temporary, peripheral followingrelation, said peripheral surface including circumferentially spaced, crosswise extending, surface elements of non-wettable character opposing strong strand adhesion thereto.

2. Feeding apparatus for a fibrous glass strand including a carrying wheel having a generally cylindrical peripheral surface adapted to tangentially receive a moisture laden strand in temporary peripheral following relation, said peripheral surface including circumferentially spaced, crosswise extending,.surface elements of nonwettable character opposing strand adhesion thereto, and guide means for directing a strand downwardly into tangential engagement with the wheel.

3. Feeding apparatus according to claim 2 in which the balance of the generally cylindrical surface is smooth and said peripheral surface.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,296,394 Meloon Sept. 22, 1942 2,561,761 Tempe July 24, 1951 2,658,254 Givens et al. Nov. 10, 1953 2,915,170

Slayter et al. Dec. 1, 1959 

2. FEEDING APPARATUS FOR A FIBROUS GLASS STRAND INCLUDING A CARRYING WHEEL HAVING A GENERALLY CYLINDRICAL PERIPERAL SURFACE ADAPTED TO TANGENTIALLY RECEIVE A MOISTURE LADEN STRAND IN TEMPORARY PERIPHERAL FOLLOWING RELATION, SAID PERIPHERAL SURFACE INCLUDING CIRCUMFERENTIALLY SPACED, CROSSWISE EXTENDING, SRUFACE ELEMENTS OF NONWETTABLE CHARACTER OPPOSING STRAND ADHESION THERETO, AND GUIDE MEANS FOR DIRECTING A STRAND DOWNWARDLY INTO TANGENTIAL ENGAGEMENT WITH THE WHEEL. 